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The prolific ed-blogger and author Diane Ravitch has some tough talk for failed CNN anchor Campbell Brown as the latter embarks on her new “project,” a so-called online, education-reform news platform.

“As you begin your new advocacy, there are a few things you need to know,” Ravitch lectures Brown in a blog post by the former.

Ouch!

For example, “I realize that you are very concerned about the fact that 50% of our students are ‘below grade level.’ I want to make sure you understand that ‘grade level’ means ‘the median,'” Ravitch tells Brown. ‘It is the midpoint, and it doesn’t have a set meaning. There will always be 50% above grade level, and 50% below grade level. That is the definition of ‘grade level.’”

It was only a matter of time before low-ratings, CNN-failed-anchor Campbell Brown – who slumbers on the board of Turnaround for Children – came up with a new way to rake in cash – start a “nonprofit.”

Brown is calling her new slush fund “The Seventy Four.”

It’ll be a “nonprofit, nonpartisan online newsroom aimed at driving a much-needed conversation about reforming America’s education system,” according to PRNewswire.

The site will “pursue stories about the education of our 74 million children in honest, fearless, and relentless terms in an effort to turn the tide and reinstate the U.S. as the global education leader,” PRN reported.

“The future of our country is predicated on a strong education system that serves all 74 million of America’s children. Unfortunately, for far too long, special interests have prioritized their own needs over the well-being of our students and have not been held accountable,” Brown told PRNewswire. “We are long overdue for an honest conversation about what works and what doesn’t work. That’s why we started The Seventy Four, a newsroom with an unapologetic point of view that will serve as a platform for those without a voice.”

“The Atlantic Media Company receives substantial financial support from the Gates Foundation through the National Journal ($240,000+) to provide coverage of education-related issues that are of interest to the Gates Foundation and its frequent partner in education policy initiatives, the Lumina Foundation.[37][38] Critics have suggested that this funding may lead to biased coverage and have noted the Lumina Foundation‘s connections to the private student loan company Sallie Mae.[39][40][41] Gates-funding of the National Journal is not always disclosed in articles or editorials about the Gates Foundation or Bill Gates, or in coverage of education white papers by other Lumina or Gates Foundation grantees, such as the New America Foundation.”

Veteran Newark teach Abigail Shure came out swinging against – what’s this? – her kissin’ cuz in the wake of his posting [https://newarkschoolsforsale.wordpress.com/2015/06/13/failing-blacks-and-hispanics-heck-send-turnaround-to-fix-it-not/] that suggested new stats say the “best teachers” should be assigned to classrooms where the blacks and hispanics are failing.

Abigail Shure

“The reformer mantra of, ‘children living in poverty are forced to suffer from the worst teachers,’ is getting stale,” the longtime teacher wrote in a reply comment to the blog. “The argument paints teachers laboring in schools filled with high-needs students with broad-brush strokes.”

If teachers in the minority classrooms are receiving low evaluations, Shure said, “these poor ratings are not being explored or exposed or explained.”

Shure said the problem is not that the minority classrooms have bad teachers, the problem is that administrators are assigning teachers to tasks outside of their expertise and experience, and then blaming the teachers for poor performance.

The veteran educator used herself as an example of how teachers are held accountable for poor management. Shure said she has spent the past year at an “employee-without-placement” site as a library aide and academic-intervention and social-and-emotional-learning teacher, assignments that are “outside of my realm of expertise.”

So, it is no wonder, she said, that her evaluation comes in at only “partially effective.”

Shure found agreement with us on one front. “Turnaround for Children has little to offer to mitigate the profound academic, social and economic challenges of our children,” she wrote.

Like this:

In a column for readingeagle.com, Louis M. Schucker, an attorney and former member of Schuylkill Valley (Pa.) School Board, wrote of Turnaround’s “work:”

“The results have been impressive. In schools that have partnered with Turnaround for more than two years, math and reading scores have improved at double the rate of peer schools. So did scores measuring school safety and a supportive learning environment.”